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Huang Tingxin, who has died aged about 91, was the last surviving Chinese naval officer to have served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War.

Published By Daily Telegraph: 6:36PM GMT 09 Dec 2009

In 1942 Chiang Kai Shek, the Chinese nationalist leader, asked the Admiralty
from his capital in Chungking for help in strengthening his navy in its War
of Resistance against the Japanese (1937-45). The Admiralty agreed to train
his officers. About 250 candidates were examined, and Huang – a native of
Anhui province who had graduated from the naval academy in Qingdao, Shandong
province, in the late 1930s – was one of only 24 young officers eventually
selected to travel via India to Britain.
Internal rivalry between Cantonese and Fukienese elements in the Chinese
National Navy meant that Huang did not arrive in London until late 1943,
when he began six months' training at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich.

In March the following year he was appointed under training to the escort
carrier Searcher, in which he was employed as watchkeeping officer. Over the
next two months Searcher took part in Operation Tungsten, the Fleet Air Arm
attack on the German battleship Tirpitz in Altenfjord, Norway; and in May
she was part of Operations Croquet and Hoops, raids on enemy shipping off
the Norwegian coast.
By early June Searcher was deployed to provide anti-submarine air cover for
convoys in the North-West approaches. Huang, recalling hearing on the
wireless on June 6 that the Allies had landed in Normandy, said: "All of us
were overjoyed at the news, but we didn't feel completely relieved until our
escort mission ended." He modestly told the Chinese press: "My part on the
ship was not much," but added proudly that "one of my comrades showered
thousands of artillery shells on the Nazi defences".
In August Huang saw action more directly when Searcher took part in
Operation Dragoon, the Allied landings in southern France.
In January 1945 he went back to Greenwich to attend sub-lieutenants'
courses, and three years later – shortly before China became a communist
state – returned to his home country. He served for a decade in the Chinese
navy and later taught English, and looked after the library, at Zhejiang
Sci-Tech University in the eastern city of Hangzhou.
In 2006 Huang received the French Légion d'honneur in recognition of his
wartime service, an accolade accorded to fewer than 200 of his countrymen.
He dedicated his medal to his former comrades.
Huang Tingxin died on November 11 and is survived by his three children.
During the Cultural Revolution he remained silent about his life in the
navy, but when he was confined to bed by Parkinson's disease he started to
dictate his wartime memories to his son, Huang Shansong.

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I have two or more citations in English of a gunboat named Baobi. The ship in question is always mentioned in operations around Guangzhou, from Wuzhou to Huangpu; during the 1920's. once as transport for Sun Yixian Oct 15th -17th 1921, and then again as approaching Huangpu the day prior to the Zhongshan Incident in March 1926. I was wondering if Baobi and the Zhaohe are not just different English language renditions. Many thanks.